Ong Dynasty
The Dynasty that once ruled Pizhou. One of the first polities to recover after the Scream, they were characterized by strict economic control, and later, incredible starship design and manufacturing expertise. In the modern day, the Ong Dynasty has been collapsed and its royals gone for more than 50 years.
Ong astronauts were back in space within 100 years of the scream, and though they wouldn't rediscover spike drive technology until 3053, they would be the first to do so, and the hundreds of years honed expertise of intra-system ship building and travel meant they were primed to be the first to begin exploring the Sector once more. In fact, the Ong were the ones to bring spike drive technology to the Asmara Region at large, even before the arrival of the Turtle Skull Fleet.
The Ong Dynasty lived well in the decades before the Fleet arrived in the region. When they arrived in Torres from the Gironda Strip, Ong defense fleets were there to meet them. While not quite a match for the Fleet, they were enough to dissuade the Fleet, who instead continued on their way to the Kamchatka System.
On the outbreak of the War of the Belt, the Ong Dynasty initially decided to remain neutral. However, the Triad Systems Alliance came to them with a deal: In exchange for several squadrons of ships, the Alliance would pledge to provide generous trade deals after the war to aid Pizhou's flagging economy.
After the war however, the newly formed Federation walked back many of the promises they made at war time, asking for far less charitable trade deals with Pizhou. After almost a year of unfruitful diplomatic talks, the Ong Dynasty decided to cut off diplomatic ties with the Federation, and closed its borders to Federal ships.
For a couple of decades afterward, it seemed that the Ong would slowly recover from their flagging economic state. Trade was still possible with far flung polities across the Torres system and into the Gironda Strip, Pizhou's ship recovery and manufacture industries continuing to drive the polity's economy. That is, until the Federation incorporated the Torres system. Now stellar neighbours, the Federation and the Dynasty engaged in a few years of military posturing as Federal blockades were set up around the Jinzhou System drill point in the Torres system.
Once those outposts were set up, the Federation was done posturing; The Federation officially began to enforce an embargo on trade to the Jinzhou system, choking out all trade passing through Torres from the Strip. This included the large amount of food and electronics needed to keep Pizhou running.
Not wanting to start a war with the now much more powerful Federation, the Ong Dynasty decided to wait it out: the Dynasty's strict hold over the economy meant they could implement serious austerity measures. They would continue to wait out the economic siege for more than 20 years. At a certain point almost a decade in, Militants in Ong Dynasty ships began to attack the Federal outposts. The Ong denied any involvement in the attacks, but made no effort to dissuade them.
In 3182, among economic crisis and rampant famine, an opposition army claiming sovereign rule of Pizhou declared war on the Ong Dynasty. The leader of the new opposing Jiang Dynasty claimed that he was the rightful heir to the throne of Pizhou, and several Ong settlements pledged allegiance to the new Dynasty. Many families were torn apart as loyalists and revolutionaries fought in the streets of Pizhou's cities.
Two years into the civil war, revolutionary extremists de-orbited a derelict cruiser on top of the Ong capital, killing almost 800,000 people. While the Ong royals survive, heavy losses are experienced on both loyalist and revolutionary sides. In the following year, support for the revolutionary Jiang Dynasty wanes after several smaller scale de-orbits wrack up further civilian casualties. The Jiang royals go into hiding, and Ong Dynast officials assert the royals still maintain power over the slowly collapsing empire.
In 3201, the assassination of queen Ming Ong of Pizhou marks the final collapse of the Ong Dynasty and what little structure it still managed to hold together after two decades of famine and insecurity. Infighting quickly destroyed any chance of the Pizhou government recovering in a timely manner, and local control quickly dissolved into anarchy.
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